I have stopped buying charm packs and layer cakes.....I will sometimes cut them myself....I have a shoe box of "charm squares" cut out of scraps. For the ones I still have, I just keep them as they come and basically, if I find a pattern I like that calls for "Layer cakes" or 'charm packs" I just go look at what I already have and use it up. I found that the layer cakes and charmed packs seldom worked for me as either they had some colors or designs that did not work for what I was making and I had to cut some out of my stash to make them work or there simply was not enough of them to make what I wanted to make. Now my they are just a part of my "scrappy" stash and get used as I make a scrappy quilt.